La tigresse

Made in 1949 this is one of those films that is a must for all noir fans. Do be warned though as this fell out of copyright some years ago and was widely duplicated – often very badly – but this is the restored version and is an absolute gem.

Late one night a couple are driving to a party that is far from inviting when a slow car tosses a bag into their open top car. The bag is choc full f cash. The wife is Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) and she decides that she is going to hang onto the cash – despite what her husband wants. So she decides to convince him to keep it. He is cut from a different cloth and it soon becomes apparent how far she will go to keep it.

Now Lizabeth Scott is a show stealer here and that is even though everyone else is great too. She is so convincing as the manipulative and self centred vixen and I just loved it. As I said earlier watch out for poor copies or better still get the restored version. For those of you that love fashion, there are some timeless and elegant gowns on display here too and the men all wear zoot suits so you can't win 'em all. This is a must for all fans of the genre and one that has aged with style.

Came across this one by accident. A hard-to-find forgotten film of the 40's turned out to be right behind "Out Of The Past", in my opinion the best of the Noir genre. A cheapie 'B', It is Miss Scotts' picture and she is ably assisted by an 'A'cast. Dependable Arthur Kennedy plays her befuddled husband and Dan Duryea is the heavy, complete with trademark sardonic grin.

'B's don't usually get a script or a storyline of this calibre. There are several plot twists which make the film completely absorbing and make it a very swift 99 minutes.I found it in a DVD collection but if it ever shows up on TCM, do yourself a favor and try not to miss this one - it is exceptional.

My 6th Noir in a self-managed study of Noir.

The web of deceit weaved by this crazy blond is a marvel to behold. Her brazen disregard for common sense, and the way she controls people around her, make her quite hate-worthy, which would make the actress Lizabeth Scott pleased to know.

Kristine Miller stole my heart with her grace and femininity as the innocent in-law, trying to make sense of the mad house of characters dropping in and out of her brother's apartment.

The toxic, manipulative love/hate relationship portrayed by Dan Duryea and Lizabeth Scott radiated sparks of electricity. See if *you* can figure out where that thing is headed. Only one of them can get the upper hand in this caper.

As I watched the version on Archive.org, I found myself wondering, "How are they going to wrap this up with only a few minutes to go?" knowing the clock is running out only heightens the tension of this nifty Noir.

Why aren't more people suspicious around such toxic characters? Maybe we all dread looking behind that curtain. Classic tragedy speaks to this.

This is some excellent story-telling, and is highly recommended.

Lizabeth Scott did her best remembered work in film noir (more than half of her only 21 screen credits fall within the noir cycle), and became one of its iconic faces. Rarely, however, was she called upon to play the fully-fledged femme fatale, and there's probably a reason for this: She couldn't bring off duplicity.

Her smile had no shadings into wry, or ironic, or smirky; it had but one setting – a fresh, guileless grin that lit up like a Christmas tree. F. Scott Fitzgerald (in his sad screenwriting days) observed of Joan Crawford that you couldn't give her a simple stage direction like `telling a lie' because then she'd give an impersonation of Benedict Arnold betraying West Point to the British. But Scott can't manage even that, which results in confusingly mixed signals when her characters are motivated by malice, like Coral Chandler in Dead Reckoning: Her smile keeps convincing us that she's on the up-and-up.

Her damn smile keeps switching on in Too Late For Tears, even though there's no doubt that she's one hard, cold case. She and husband Arthur Kennedy are bickering one night en route to a party in the Hollywood Hills when suddenly a suitcase crammed with cash lands in their roadster. He wants to turn it over to the police, but she persuades him to think it over, so they check the valise at Union Station. When she starts buying clothes and furs against the checked capital, it's clear she has no intention of surrendering the windfall; we learn that her background was `white-collar poor, middle-class poor,' and that she'd made a previous marriage solely for money.

Strange men start ringing her doorbell. First Dan Duryea shows up, a blackmailer for whom the payoff was intended. He slaps her around playfully (`What do they call you – besides stupid,' she taunts him. `Stupid will do – if you don't bruise easily,' he purrs back). Quickly Scott maneuvers Duryea into helping him murder Kennedy but still won't tell him where the money's stashed. Though wary, he falls for her, starts hitting the bottle, and grows careless. Meanwhile, Kennedy's sister (Kristine Miller) harbors suspicions about his mysterious disappearance. When the next caller (Don DeFore) shows up, claiming to be an old Air Corps buddy of Kennedy's, she makes an alliance with him to find out what's really going on. And the claim ticket for the money keeps changing hands....

The plot is none too simple, and in consequence director Byron Haskin spends a lot of time trying to keep it clear rather than addressing some questions about character and logic that inevitably arise. Why did the avaricious, manipulative Scott marry Kennedy in the first (or second) place? Why does the sister live so conveniently close? How did Duryea, and for that matter DeFore, find Scott so easily? But few thriller plots are so tightly constructed that they survive rigorous analysis. Too Late For Tears passes muster as hard-boiled, late-40s noir and as one of Scott's hardest, strongest performances, inappropriate smile and all.

Byron Haskin of Arsenic and Old Lace and War of the Worlds fame teamed up with Roy Huggins to create this solid film noir entry. Huggins writing is superb for the genre - neither pretentious nor overly manic. The pace is brisk but not painfully so. And the film is very well conceived, well directed, well edited and very well acted.

The remarkable Lizabeth Scott (Jane Palmer), married to a young Arthur Kennedy (Alan Palmer), is the focus of our attention. The coupled are driving to a friend's house when a car flashes them and its occupant tosses a leather bag with 60,000 dollars into their car and drives off. Jane wants to keep it, Alan wants to turn it in. Soon, this windfall becomes a mixed blessing, as it reveals a rather frightening side of Jane's personality. The plot intertwines noir twists and turns and incessant mystery and, frequently, winds up in unanticipated places.

Lizabeth Scott is PERFECT, and really MAKES this film as much as the intriguing story and successful directing. Don Defore also turns in a notable performance as does Kristine Miller. Dan Duryea was nicely cast in his role as the heavy, but his performance here was just a sliver below his usual par.

This is very nice bit of noir cinema and will satisfy most noir fans, as well as modern crime drama aficionados. Recommended!